Rapid and accurate identification of materials is a requirement of many applications, particularly for identification of dangerous devices such as explosives. Security checkpoints, such as found in airports and entrances to other sensitive areas, benefit from being able to determine if an object contains or is made of explosive or otherwise dangerous material. Techniques used to identify objects include X-Ray equipment, holographic image processing devices, and ionizing radiation detectors to identify radioactive materials. X-ray and holographic methods have a drawback of being limited to identifying the shape of an item, but give no information regarding the composition of the material that makes up the item. Ionizing radiation detectors identify radioactive material, but do not detect conventional explosive devices. X-ray and holographic systems are often large, immobile devices that require fixed installations, thereby limiting the flexibility of their use.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.